[CUEBALL]

Thanks PPP!!!!!! DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!

Much good going on over there that doesn't get reported. The media generally comes with an agenda (I have met many and sat in on discussions about them with Brigade leadership in Iraq) and you know certain ones will report items consistent with that agenda. You can take them with you when you build a girls school, but they will report the views of a disgruntled Iraqi next door that complains of an American that did him wrong... which may or may not be true. Even politicians will come and do the same thing.. have a briefing where they agree with the program, then go back home and voice their agenda.
But, good news doesn't sell. WE do not buy it, but look for the sensational story for our entertainment. Doesn't matter if it is Iraq, or domestic happenings, the media twists it and sells it to us for top dollar. And we as a people LOVE it.
One of my favorite discussions around the Army office is "How CNN ruined America and the Army". 24 hour news networks have to fill a lot of space, so a small story becomes an onslaught of repetitive truth and spin. When was the last time you saw three days of constant coverage of anything good? In the military, we have been raked over those networks so much, that we subconsciously tend to avoid some of the hard choices needed to accomplish business. Not only in war, but peace as well. I could fill volumes of instances like this. Why do you think part of the conscious decision to cover up things like Tillman's death was made? Someone was thinking of what the damaging headline would be and made the easy coice, not the right thing. On and on and on.

Thanks for the post!!! I too am cynical of the media and what DOD spews out, or the Gov't for that matter. But in the context of this thread, spot on correct!!